I remember the senior management at school wanted to give underachieving pupils laptops that they could take home for studying for their GCSEs. I was either an average or high achiever, depending on my lessons and who I was with, and didn't have full access to a computer at home, and this angered me. I studied with the girls up for this scheme, and knew they wouldn't appreciate or make use of help if it came up and bit them on the ass. So I wrote a letter to the deputy head teacher for the scheme to be open to all who needed 24/7 hour access to a computer, and working internet. Few weeks later, those who put their name down for one were given a laptop on loan from the school with an internet dongle.

It started off innocent enough. I didn't actually use the internet for anything other than study. Then my best friend signed me up to the text based RPG Vaperida, and I got addicted to that game. I made friends, made my own guild, was rich, blah blah blah. I signed up to this forum when I was looking for help on something with Final Fantasy VII. I was reading a thread somewhere, and saw a post made by Chez Jaja which made me laugh, and I thought "what cool guys!" I joined a few days later, and then I had two things I was addicted to.

I was a late joiner to the Internet. We'd had internet in my house for a good few years before I had that laptop, but I didn't really understand its potential and was only allowed to use it for like an hour a week for studies and only when we weren't expecting any phone calls. Damn dial-up.